How on earth could you have let Gabby Crabcakes get away with confusing defuse with diffuse (Jan. 20-26 Bay Bite: Les Folies)? I nag because I am concerned that some young folks might believe that everything that they see in print has to be correct.

You should know however that I am an equal opportunity nagger. I often take on The Capital, whose boo-boos are far more frequent and egregious than your rare ones. Typical from the Police Beat: The robber ordered the clerks to lay on the floor.

Nevertheless, thanks for a fine paper. My daughter, a marine biologist living in New Jersey, also enjoys it, especially Bay-related articles. Keep up the good work. Regards,

Gordon Loftin, AnnapolisEditors note: Accepting your charge with shame, we plead asleep at the computer. It would have been pretty dark at Les Folies were the lighting defused instead of the nicely radiant diffuse lighting Gabby was noting. As for lie and lay, we prefer choosing other verbs to laying that blame on ourselves.

I know youve covered the Patuxent River Greenway, so I want to alert your readers to an upcoming public forum. The South County Exchange will present a strategy for uses of land along the river Monday, Feb. 7. County officials, the South County Small Area Planning Committee and representatives from both the rubble landfill and sand and gravel industries will be there. If you live in this area, your voice should be heard. Plan to come to Adams United Methodist Church, 937 Bayard Road, Lothian, at 7pm.

Paul Rensted, Fairhaven

Weirder Still

Dear Bay Weekly:

Chuck Shepherds The Weirdest News of 1999 [Jan. 6-12] relates that the school district in Columbus, Ga., had aides touch up 2,300 textbooks containing photos of Emanuel Leutzes Washington Crossing the Delaware. Some folks thought Washingtons pocket watch, hanging against his thigh, might be misinterpreted by some fifth graders as Washingtons manhood.

A number of years ago, a newspaper in New York state, which had some subscribers in Pennsylvania where the infamous blue laws were still in effect, had to touch up the picture of the madonna and child on the front page of its Christmas issue, It seemed that the baby Jesus showed full frontal nudity, and newsboys and others were handed crayons and told to put a diaper on baby Jesus on all those papers going to Pennsylvania.